


Such a Happy Night

by gray_autumn_sky



Series: Set in S6 [4]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, OQ Prompt Party 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-23
Updated: 2018-03-23
Packaged: 2019-04-07 03:25:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14071875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gray_autumn_sky/pseuds/gray_autumn_sky
Summary: Written for OQ Prompt Party 2018.A little Regal Peanut ficlet. This uses prompts #70 (Robyn and Regina), #77 (“Would you like to share the blanket”) and #186 (Robin gives Regina a ring).





	Such a Happy Night

Regina was barely awake as she padded down the hallway, her blanket draped over her shoulders like a cape. It was just after two in the morning and that night, she’d struggled to fall asleep; and then, it seemed that almost as soon as she did, Robyn’s cries woke her up. **  
**

She smiled groggily at the toddler as she came into her room, sighing as the little girl lifted her arms expectantly and a let out a little, tearless cry–and she watched as a hint of a smile edged onto Robyn’s lips as she watched her near. Soon after Zelena moved in, Regina found that her sister could sleep through nearly anything, and while Snow and Archie and Granny all swore that letting Robyn cry herself back to sleep was perfectly fine and would actually help her to become more self-reliant later on in life, she just couldn’t let her do it. When Henry was a baby, he’d been a crier and it broke her heart not to go to him; and despite Archie’s insistence that she wasn’t a terrible mother for allowing her baby to cry, she’d never been able to do it.

And Henry had turned out perfectly fine.

“Come here,” she whispers as she lifts Robyn from her crib and cuddles her close. “Would you like to share the blanket?”

Robyn grins and nods once, and she can’t help but laugh softly as she carries her over to the rocker in the corner. For a few minutes they sit together and she combs her fingers through Robyn’s blonde hair. She cradles her as she folds the blanket over her, and she can’t help but notice how with everyday that passes, Robyn looks more and more like her father.

“How about a story?” She asks as she begins to rock, grinning as Robyn nods again, his time pushing her thumb into her mouth. “What story do you want me to read?” She asks, not really expecting an answer as she reaches for the little stack of books sitting atop a table beside them. “We have Goodnight Moo–”

“Papa!”

“Oh,” she murmurs as she looks back to her. “You want another story about your papa?”

“Papa,” she says again, this time softer as she blinks up at her. “Papa story.”

Regina smiles as she considers it, trying to choose a memory to share. Already, she’d shared so many, and though Robyn never minded a repeated story, it was important to her to share any many stories with her as she could, so that Robyn would grow up feeling her father’s presence in her life. The first story she’d told her had come after Robyn discovered the Disney movie and fell in love with the little fox who wrote a funny little hat and embodied her father’s heroic and selfless character–and from there, she’d told her countless stories about the <real Robin Hood. She’d told her the story of the first meeting and then another time, she told her about their second first meeting. She told her about the first time they danced together and the time she’d taught him to use the blender and he’d forgotten to put the top on it, and they’d spent the rest of the morning cleaning a strawberry smoothie off the kitchen ceiling. She told her the kid-friendly version of their first kiss and she told her about the moment she first realized that she loved him, and she told all about the magic of a fairy leading her to her soulmate.

“Papa please,” Robyn says, grabbing at her pajamas, her blue eyes growing wide. “Please!”

“Alright, alright,” she says in a nearly sing-song voice, as Robyn reaches for her necklace. “I’ll tell you a story about your papa.”

“Papa,” she says again, as Regina gently pulls the chain from her and presses a soft kiss to Robyn’s hair. “Papa story. Now.”

“Okay,” Regina says as she looks down at the ring on the chain, remembering the night Robin gave it to her–and remembering the night Robin gave it to her.

They’d just come back from the Charmings’ and it was late. Her shoulders were tense and her temples ached, and that night, they’d decided to follow Emma to the Underworld. Henry had insisted that he’d go, too, and she knew her son well enough to know that if she tried to stop him, he’d find a way to go anyway, and she’d reasoned that if she took him, she could at least keep him safe. Robin poured her a drink as she fell back onto the couch, propping her feet up on the coffee table, and for just a moment, she closed her eyes and tried to ignore the little voice in her head that told her all of this was a terrible idea.

She’d opened her eyes when she felt Robin as she felt him sit down beside her–and when she did, he was looking at her with a glint in his eye. She took the glass of whiskey from him and took a swig, watching curiously as he set his own, untouched glass onto the table–and then, he’d reached into his pocket. He’d told her that he didn’t plan on doing this tonight and he told her he’d wanted to plan a special evening for just the two of them with wine and candles and a hundred other cliches he’d picked up from the romantic comedies he’d found in her home office, movies she swore she’d never watched. Her breath caught in her throat as he sunk down onto one knee and asked her to marry him, that before they left for the Underworld, he wanted her to know how much he loved her and that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her–and it went unsaid that the reason he was asking then was because he feared they might never return.

Her voice was shaky and her eyes filled with tears as she said yes–and she said it without hesitation–and the smile the stretched across his lips was so bright and sweet. She’d worn the ring that night, and then, just before leaving, she’d put it on a chain. Announcing their engagement then, when Emma was so devastated, seemed in poor taste, and there was something fun and exciting about having it be their own little secret–something that had made those long nights in the Underworld that they spent apart a bit more bearable…

“Do you want to hear about the night your papa gave me this ring?” She asks, grinning down at Robyn as her throat tightens a bit. “It was such a happy night…”


End file.
